Public Transit Analytics

develops measurements that create better public transit networks.

Spontaneous Accessibility evaluates how capable a transit network is of empowering its customers to make unplanned, unanticipated trips.
This internally-developed measurement, based on peer-reviewed principles, provides a complementary perspective to models that focus on predicting ridership and capacity.
Public Transit Analytics can conduct Spontaneous Accessibility analyses for any transit system, regardless of its size or prior level of investment in modeling and design tools.

As a small business and a Certified King County, Washington Small Contractor, Public Transit Analytics works with prime contractors or directly with transit agencies during the planning stages of any transit project, whether locally in Seattle or around the world.

Measurement Principles

Unusual is Not Unimportant

The appeal of a private vehicle is not just that it speeds up common trips, but that it allows an immediate response to unexpected needs.
Networks that better support spontaneity extend more of the benefit of car ownership to transit customers.
Uniquely, Public Transit Analytics makes the individual's ability to make an unanticipated trip a primary focus, in contrast to existing models that focus on matching projected demand.

Changing One Thing Changes the Network

In a transit network, understanding exactly how the network provides accessibility is difficult.
Adding a rail line, changing a bus route, relocating a stop, or adding a crosswalk do not just impact those in the immediate vicinity of the change.
Public Transit Analytics always calculates the network-wide accessibility impact of any service change efficiently, so that many alternatives can be considered.

Equitable Decisions Come From Data

Public transit riders are people with different needs and abilities.
Even well-intentioned planners have preconceptions about how the transit network will be used.
Public Transit Analytics's Spontaneous Accessibility measurements can be configured to assess and visualize accessibility from the perspective of riders of all abilities.

Not Used is Not Useless

Low ridership is sometimes used to justify the elimination of transit lines.
Public Transit Analytics views ridership as a consequence of the network, not an immutable property of a region.
By diagnosing whether underperformance is due to redundancy or inadequacy, Public Transit Analytics can help to reallocate resources in a precise way that corrects the underlying issue.